Hi there!
Here we are with a peek inside the tiny bakery!
October brought us some beautiful weather, and with it some very nice bread. I had a lot of new customers on Saturdays and lots of new monthly subscribers, so thank you for sharing my bread with your families and friends! It's been so fun meeting and getting to know new people, chatting with you all, and hearing nice feedback from everyone. I also enjoy delivering to new houses and adding them to the constellation of people and places I know in the map of our city in my head.
One new thing we tried out this month was stickers, replacing the stamps and twine that were becoming a bit cumbersome and time involved for the level of production we are doing now. I do like the ease of closing my packaging with a sticker, but I feel like this particular sticker is too small and too shiny, so I will be working on a larger paper type sticker as time allows.
We had our 100th sale through the website! (and 102nd, and 103rd...) an exciting little milestone. Thank you for making it happen!
We've also been working on trying out beautiful new bread shapes and making new recipes to prepare for ModShop. I was really pleased with these sweet potato and sage fougasse (above). Gabe here is brushing the warm breads with a fruity floral olive oil infused with sage. We also tested a sourdough rosemary,poppyseed & parmesan cracker recipe inspired by my daughter Sophie, we ate them all very quickly! I'm hoping to make little bags of these for discerning small gourmets who may be tagging along to the market.
Speaking of Sophie, my biggest helper turned 8 this month, so we took a weekend off from the usual baking to go to San Francisco and enjoyed a beautiful day at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.
Gabe has been enjoying the daily rythms of work in the tiny bakery, it lends a predictability to each day and he sometimes chooses to keep the extra loaf I make for himself, or package it up in his own way and give it to someone he loves. He also sometimes feels brave enough to deliver breads himself, knocking on doors with warm bread in hand. A few of our delivery customers have taken it upon themselves to spoil him with little treats. This past month found him with lollipops, fresh baked cookies, bunny graham crackers, animal cookies, fruit roll ups and all manner of nibbles. (you can see him enjoying the fruits of his hard work sitting in our bike below) I so appreciate the warmth and friendliness everyone bestows on my little helper, even on days when he feels shy or even a bit grumpy as 4 year olds often do!
Speaking of our bike, our little basket on the front has deteriorated under the pressure of carrying all this bread around town. I'm excited to say that some bread money has gone into ordering a new front rack for our bike. It will be very sturdy, accommodate lots of bread, and be affixed with great headlights as the days get darker and shorter. I can't wait to show it to you in person, or in next months bakery update! Leo, our tiniest baby boulanger has been sprouting his first two teeth which has meant lots of clinging to mom and sleepless nights, SO if you asked me how I was doing, I probably reflexively said "so tired!" I apologize for that...we will survive! And so ends this months tiny bakery update. Growing business, growing children, and growing community. Thanks for being a part of our village!
